USITT: One of the first steps in any job search is to conduct a thorough self-assessment to become fully aware of what you have to offer a potential employer. Reflecting back on your work and educational history and thinking critically about each experience helps you to better understand the product (you) that you are selling to a potential employer. Such a look back also exposes where you might need to develop further experience or take on additional education.
4 comments:
Normally I do not fully trust people who call themselves “resume doctors”. This is because it just sounds a little sketchy and cheesy, and to be completely honest. Maybe it is just me, but I get a good sense that when someone who has a title like that either gave it to themselves or has and extremely big ego thinking that they know everything about resumes. The thing about resumes is not necessarily a right or a wrong way to do it. There are, however, more successful techniques than others. Also, entertainment resumes are so unique because there is no standard format, so it comes down to personal tastes. That all being said, I feel like a “resume doctor” on the exhibit floor of USITT would actually be extremely useful. I say this because I am assuming that this person, who has been vetted by USITT, probably has a ton of experience looking at theatrical resumes, and can give some pretty solid advice.
This is an interesting question that I have never though to get advice on (that could just be because I'm only a sophomore but still). I would think that because a job search is so personal, it never occurred to me that there might be strategies for going about finding a job. Still, after reading this article I realize that you probably really don't need to seek a "doctors" help when searching for a job for the very reasons I just mentioned. The article mentioned steps that I would assume would be... obvious. I think the best thing this article does is break up the seemingly obvious steps down. It reminds you that you have to reflect on not only what you want in a job, but the special skills you have to offer. Overall, I don't think anyone really needs to seek advice when it comes to their very personal job search.
Resumes are such a loaded form of communication, and topic in general. Many people will tell you that a resume is not what gets you job, however it can be what gets you the interview or into the next phases of the application process. However, this article was initially a little misleading considering it is more career advice than resume advice, but I guess it would be safe to say that one who is a “doctor” in one of the fields, should be a “doctor” in the other. I totally agree with the idea that you should start with a self-assessment. So often in this industry, we move from gig to gig or in school from assignment to assignment and we don’t take time to reflect on why things went the way they did. What did we do right and what did we wrong? Also, ultimately asking yourself question 3 in the article, “Why do you want to work in this industry?” The answer could be simple or long but we should all feel confident answering it.
This is the second article of the “Resume Doctor” that I have responded to and I think this one is just as silly as the first. First, the title of the article is misleading. The article is about how to self-reflect before deciding what job you want instead of preparing for the actual job search. Second, the article does not describe how to prepare for the job search. It does not discuss where to find webpages to look for advertisements, how to look through the variety of job posting to find the ones you want, and finally how to sort the information you get from the webpages, newspapers, emails, etc. into a form that then allows you to actually apply for all of the jobs. Especially since you typically apply to many jobs in theatre, it is often difficult to keep track of all of the postings and applications, and this would have been interesting to explore but “the Doctor” did not.
Post a Comment